Teams qualified for the Nerd Street League of Legends Winter Champs Finals

The Nerd Street League of Legends Winter Championship Finals are less than two weeks away. The Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ), which takes place this weekend (Feb. 12-13), will determine four teams that will join the 12 that have already qualified via points. The top 12 on the points leaderboard accrued points via competing in a series of four open qualifiers over the past few months. Last Resistance, Bay State College B and Oakland University (Teams 11 to 13) all tied in points, but according to a source with Nerd Street, Last Resistance and Bay State College B will make the cut due to a tiebreaker. To get you ready for the Winter Champs Finals, below are the 12 teams that have qualified and a breakdown of the top teams contending to be crowned Winter Champs.

Teams qualified via leaderboard points

1. University of St. Thomas
2. TEAM LAWRENCE
3. Bay State College
4. Maryville University
5. UC Irvine Varsity
6. AOE Not Zoos
7. Winthrop University JV
8. Winthrop University
9. Glaive Esports Prime
10. AOE Esports
11. Last Resistance
12. Bay State College B

Breaking down the field

The Favorite

University of St. Thomas

The University of St. Thomas is the favorite to win Nerd Street’s League of Legends Winter Championship Finals. They won the first two of the four open qualifiers. They made it through the second open qualifier without dropping any games. They finished second in the third open qualifier, and they amassed way more points than any other team to top the points leaderboard. Two of their players have recently moved on -- Jackson “Array” Moldenhauer to 100 Thieves Next and Trevor “Roy” Roy to Immortals AOE. Still, they should be a strong team heading into the Winter Champs Finals bracket.

Contenders

Bay State College, TEAM LAWRENCE

Bay State and TEAM LAWRENCE are the only two other teams that won Winter Champs open qualifiers besides St. Thomas University. TEAM LAWRENCE beat St. Thomas in the final to prevent them from picking up a third open qual win. Any team that can beat the heavy favorite is certainly a contender. Plus, three members of this team (lxwrence, LeenK and rovex) also were on Homeless Gang, who finished fourth in the second open qualifier.

Bay State won the fourth open qualifier, beating UC Irvine in the final. It’s also worth noting Bay State College’s B team competed in this open qual and reached the semifinals, where they lost to UCI. So, this was close to being an all-Bay State grand final.

Dark horses

Maryville, UCI Varsity

Neither Maryville nor UCI won any of the open qualifiers, but they both did very well throughout, and both schools have a history of doing well in League of Legends. UCI finished second to Bay State in one open qualifier and reached the quarterfinals of another. Maryville lost to St. Thomas in the final of one open qual and reached the semifinals of another.

Maryville were 2019 collegiate champions, and they finished second in the 2021 collegiate championship. They recently brought back Aiden "Niles" Tidwell, who was part of the 2019 championship team and spent some time in the League Championship Series (LCS) with Golden Guardians. UCI were 2018 collegiate champions and finished top four at the 2019 championship.